Future Poinsettia Bowls

Either way, TCU head coach Gary Patterson suspected there were spies on the other team Wednesday night in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

So he changed his team’s signals in the second half.

In the first half, TCU struggled despite entering the game as a 10-point favorite against Louisiana Tech.

Was it because the Bulldogs knew TCU’s signals?

Patterson said he thought it was a risk. “We changed the signals in the second half,” he said after winning the game 31-24.

Patterson said two Louisiana Tech assistant coaches previously worked with him at TCU when Patterson was TCU’s defensive coordinator from 1998-2000 – defensive line coach Stan Eggen and inside receivers coach Mark Tommerdahl.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Tech offered an official denial of any signal-stealing. Asked if the Bulldogs knew TCU’s signals, a Louisiana Tech spokesman said afterward, “Of course not.”

“If they have the same signals as 10 years ago, they’re not doing their job,” said the spokesman, Patrick Walsh.

Small crowd: The Poinsettia Bowl set a record for smallest crowd in its seven-year history (24,607).

But it wasn’t unexpected.

“We expected the crowd to be in this range,” said Bruce Binkowski, the game’s executive director. “We’re not fazed at all.

TCU (11-2) had been to the Poinsettia twice previously since 2006 and last year played in Southern California, winning the Rose Bowl. So perhaps the sunshine lost its allure. For Louisiana Tech, the game is at least a couple of flights from its campus Ruston, La., whose population isn’t much smaller -- about 21,000.

The Poinsettia this year matched a second pick from the Mountain West against a first choice from the Western Athletic Conference. The game could have selected San Diego State for the second straight year instead of TCU and sold more tickets.

It just wouldn’t have been as popular of a choice for San Diego hotels, which provide about $400,000 annually to the Poinsettia and Holiday bowls to help fill hotel rooms during the holiday season. Out-of-town teams generally fill more hotel rooms with fans than SDSU, whose fan base resides largely in San Diego.

Last year, SDSU and Navy played in the Poinsettia, helping set the game’s attendance record at 48,049.

The downside of that was that last year’s game registered its lowest-ever economic impact ($4.2 million), which measures money coming into the local economy from out of town.

Next year, the game will match a Mountain West team against Brigham Young if BYU is bowl-eligible with at least six wins.

In 2013, the Poinsettia is set to match the Mountain West against Army, if Army is bowl-eligible. The game’s contract with the Mountain West expires after 2013. In 2014, the game is working to bring back Navy.

Dykes raise: Louisiana Tech announced before the game that head coach Sonny Dykes agreed to a two-year contract extension through 2017. It is expected to increase his salary from about $500,000 to more than $700,000. His team went 5-7 in his first season last year before winning the Western Athletic Conference championship this year and finishing 8-4 in the regular season.

Most of his team’s surge has come with little national media attention. Dykes noted as much after the game when talking about how most expected TCU to win easily.

“I don’t think anybody expected this to be much of a game,” Dykes said. “If you asked most of the national media, they wouldn’t know what state Louisiana Tech was in probably.”

“Without my receivers, without my (offensive line), my running backs, without them I wouldn’t be able to do what I did because it was a great group to play with this year,” Pachall said.

He completed 15 of 29 passes for 206 yards Wednesday against Louisiana Tech.

Flags fury: TCU kept pointing the gun at its own foot in the first half with four costly penalties for 46 yards. First it was personal foul on a Louisiana Tech field-goal attempt, a penalty that gave the Bulldogs three more tries for a touchdown. Fortunately for TCU, the defense held the Bulldogs to another field goal.

On the next series, TCU running back Matthew Tucker went on a 38-yard to the Louisiana Tech 5-yard – big play that was called back on a face-mask penalty against offensive guard Kyle Dooley.

TCU was even flagged for roughing the kicker in the second quarter. Bulldogs punter Ryan Allen appeared to slip on his own, but the flag was thrown against TCU linebacker Joel Hasley. It gave the Bulldogs another first down at their own 29. But again the TCU defense overcame it, this time with an interception three plays later by cornerback Greg McCoy, the game’s defensive MVP.